Chapter 192: Mate Mate Mate — KNOCK KNOCK
GUINEVERE’S CHAMBERS
Everything in this room was white. Couch. Ottoman. Hearth. Rug. Bed. And pillows everywhere. Small ones, long ones, square ones, ones that served no purpose other than existing.
But the bookshelves were what gave him pause. Floor to ceiling on multiple walls with hundreds of titles, alphabetized and organized by language.
Kael laid her on the bed face-down, carefully, his hands slower than they’d been all night. She didn’t stir.
He stood over her for three seconds longer than necessary. The silk pajama top was shredded across her back, the fabric hanging in strips that framed the lacerations underneath. Her white hair was fanned across the pillow, still damp, still half-frozen at the ends. Her waist was narrow enough that his hand could have spanned it. He noticed that. Told his dragon to shut up about it.
Three seconds. Then Kael was on the bed next to her. He pulled her on top of him so her back was not touching anything.
She needed body heat. He had body heat. Done.
His hand cupped the back of her thigh, fingers digging in as he pulled her leg higher around his hip. Then his fingers brushed the curve of her ass as he adjusted her on top of him. She fit perfectly against him.
He groaned loudly and involuntarily as blood rushed to his cock.
"Fuck me..."
The thin fabric did nothing about the soft press of her breasts and hard nipples against his chest.
He didn’t realize he was massaging her scalp until he felt her muscles relax into him unconsciously. He didn’t stop. He’d never wanted to protect someone and take care of them as much as he wanted to with her.
"That’s it. I’ve got you," he whispered.
But also he was really horny.
He tried to adjust her so his dick wasn’t against her stomach. Ended up slipping his leg between her thighs and his dick stayed where it was, hard and aching.
He was losing his mind. He was talking to himself. She would wake up and have no idea who the hell he was. This was not the time. The healer was on his way.
"Gods, I’ve never wanted to touch someone so bad in my life."
He closed his eyes for a moment. Tried to think of literally anything else. Couldn’t. Her scent and the sensation of her pressed against him amplified.
He opened his eyes. All he could see was gold. His heart was thundering in his ears like a war drum.
"You smell like you were made for me and I hate that because it’s making this impossible."
His dragon was growling.
We mate with her.
No. She needs a doctor. We take care of her, Kael thought back to the beast.
The urge to rip her clothes off and fuck her was overwhelming, saturating every muscle and nerve.
"I can’t," he told himself and his dragon.
The beast surged harder and his hips jerked forward, humping against her on their own.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
"Fuck," he breathed. "I can’t stop..."
He tried to anchor himself to his own mind, fighting the wild tide rising in his blood, but his body betrayed him instantly.
The humping got faster until it was just pure animalistic thrusts of him grinding his aching cock against her with zero restraint.
Claim. Fill. Make her ours.
"Fuck... I’m losing control. I want to be inside you so bad."
He could feel the line. It was right there. And he was not on the right side of it.
A loud knock sounded from the door. This would look bad for Guinevere.
With a low curse, Kael moved like lightning, shifting her off him gently and covering her with the blanket.
"Enter. I’ll be right out," he called calmly.
A healer opened the door, just as Kael was closing the bathing chamber door.
If I don’t cum right now, I’m going to lose control.
Water on. Kael shoved his pants down. He was painfully hard and had almost cum in his pants. Fuck. He started jerking his cock with desperate, fast strokes, one hand braced on the wall as he fought to stay silent.
His dragon was roaring to go back out there and fuck her.
His eyes fluttered shut. He wanted to taste her so goddamn bad. There were a lot of things he wanted to do with her, actually, like bouncing her up and down on his cock.
✦✦✦
45 SECONDS LATER
The bathing chamber door opened, and Kael emerged looking suspiciously relaxed for a man who had just violently jerked off to stop himself from mounting her in front of the healer.
An older man was carefully cutting through her silk top and bralette, exposing her back. His dragon exploded forward with raw fury.
Mine. He does not touch what belongs to us.
I miss the days when you didn’t feel the need to comment on every goddamn thing, Kael thought back to it.
His hands clenched into fists, knuckles white. He took a breath.
The old man began putting medicine on Guinevere, which was understandable, but also not ideal.
"Is there a healer who uses magic?" Kael asked, already knowing he was about to be disappointed. "Accelerated tissue regeneration? Something that closes wounds in minutes instead of days? I’ll settle for a strong placebo at this point."
The healer stared at Kael like he’d proposed blood sacrifice. "I am a licensed doctor, and we heal with science in Nyros. Plant medicine. Not whatever instant-regeneration dragon voodoo you’re used to."
"Wonderful. Medieval plant paste special and a prayer."
Kael sat down heavily in the chair beside the bed. The chair was white.
"She’ll heal in four days with proper rest and clean dressings," the healer said.
The healer finished bandaging her back, then paused, glancing at Kael who was, to be fair, watching him like a very possessive, territorial, protective boyfriend who could snap his neck at any given moment.
"Don’t even think about putting that on me. I’m not a goddamn sandwich," Kael said flatly, eyeing the jar of green goop.
"Not you, her," the old man explained. "I need to check below the line. The whip caught her hip on at least two strikes. Protocol for the princess of Lunaris is no one except a healer is authorized—"
"I’ll do it." The words left Kael’s mouth before the healer’s fingers moved another inch. His voice was calm. The message was clear: nobody else was touching her below anything.
"Do you know how to bandage and clean wounds?" the healer asked.
Kael gave the healer an unimpressed look. "Yes, Flower Boy. You wait in the hall and I’ll call you back in when it’s done."
The healer handed him the jar and the spatula without comment and left the chambers.
Kael shifted the waistband down by an inch, just enough to know there was more than the healer realized.
Without hesitation, he grabbed the scissors and cut her bottoms off, exposing her completely so he could get a better look.
The sight made his dragon snarl. His eyes darkened.
Welts wrapped around her hips and the top of her ass. The skin there was thinner, more delicate, and the wounds were angrier.
He was military trained and had dressed wounds before, but none of them were her.
"Fuck," he breathed. "That prince is dead tonight."